dorter

One may forgive the archbishop for this lapse in his sense of humour; he had had trouble with Eustachia before; it was just like her to keep a bird that squawked in the dorter.

The next year when Alnwick came again this prioress announced that she did not lie in the dorter, nor keep frater, cloister and church on account of bodily weakness; she alleged that he had dispensed her from these observances, which he denied.

Dame Maud Shirwode speaks of the children that lie in the dorter.”

Thinking that some man had got in, she recoiled in alarm and fell down the dorter stairs, so that for some days she lay ill of the sudden fright as well as of the fall....

In 1255 there was no further complaint of immorality but the nuns were as lax as ever in keeping the rule as to communal life: They have chambers with partitions in the dorter.